the year 2030
by rosemusic20
Summary: What happened after Ted finished telling the story of "How I Met Your Mother" The gang is getting together for dinner. Surprises surface and Chaos ensues Couples: Barney & Robin/ Marshall & Lily/ Ted and someone/ some young love involving a certain Marvin Wait for it Erikson
1. Chapter 1

"And kids that is the story of how I met your mother." Ted smiled and put down the scrapbook he had been using to jog his memory.  
"Thanks dad." His daughter said quickly.  
"Yeah. Great story." His son added. They both started to stand up when tall lengthy woman with auburn hair that fell down a little past her neck strode confidently into the room.  
"Hey guys." She smiled "Skooch over so I can sit on the couch." When the kids moved over she sat down and asked. "So, what has been taking you so long? It seems like you have been in here for almost a decade."  
"Dad was telling us the story of how you guys met."  
"Oh was he?" The stunning woman's eyebrows rose and she smiled adoringly at her husband "You know it is a funny story. I don't know if he told you but-"  
"NO!" The kids shouted at the same time.  
"You're right. I don't have time to tell the story anyway. The gang will be here any minute."  
At that moment the door bell rang.  
"I'll get it." Ted stood up eagerly. "Kids go set the table." He walked excitedly to the door and opened it to find Marshal and Lily beaming at him.  
"Ted!" Marshal shouted "It has been to long my friend." He was carrying in his hand a plate with tinfoil wrapping on it. "Guess what?" He said excitedly "I brought Gouda."  
Ted laughed as he embraced his best friend. He hugged Lily with equal force. Taking the plate and walking to the kitchen, he said "Barney and Robin should be here any minute. Where are your kids?"  
"They should be here in a minute." Lily said. "Marvin wanted to drive himself here everyone else wanted to ride with him. But who can blame them. I mean, what kid wouldn't chose to ride with their cool big brother over their boring lame parents."  
"I know I wouldn't." Marshall chuckled.  
At that moment Ted's wife and kids came into the kitchen.  
"Melanie!" Lily said excitedly upon seeing Teds wife.  
"LILY!" Cried Melanie. They hugged.  
"Hi Uncle Marshal." The teenage girl walked cautiously up to her father's friend "Don't you dare tickle me."  
"Fine." Marshal lifted his hands up as if to surrender. But as the girl hugged her uncle he immediately started tickling her. She jumped back looking indignant "You are smarter than that Lexi!" Marshal chided.  
Lexi made a pouting face but couldn't keep from laughing. Moments later, Teds son brushed past the crowd without saying anything.  
"Luke." Melanie said sternly "Come and say hi."  
The boy turned around "Hey Marsal. Hey Lily."  
Lily immediately began talking in what to her was a manly voice. "Hey Man. Tsup?"  
Luke laughed and walked over to hug her.  
"Works every time." Lily said over his shoulder to everyone in the room.  
Luke pulled away from her and hugged Marshal as well.  
"Um, Aunt Lily." Lexi asked shyly "Where is Marvin? I thought he was going to be here."  
"Oh, he and the kids should be here any minute!" Lily smiled. There was a knock on the door. "Maybe thats them!"  
Lexi ran to get the door. When she opened it 6 kids paraded in as if it was their own home.  
The smallest came first. He was about 4 years old but he looked 6. He had wavy brown hair and was carrying the control to a remote control helicopter that flew in after him. He was wearing a red t-shirt blasting the letters "The Avengers".  
"Hi Caleb!" Lexi said.  
Caleb barely looked at her. He ran right past shouting "LUKE! I got a new helicopter! Look Luke!"  
Next were two girls, both with red hair halfway down their backs. They were tall and skinny and were about 9 years old. The identical twins were wearing the exact same outfit except in different colors.  
"Hey Chloe!" Lexi said, hugging the twin wearing a pastel blue and purple flowered dress with white leggings. "I love your dress."  
"Thank you!" Chloe beamed.  
"What about my dress?" Asked the other, who was wearing the same dress in orange and yellow. She too had on knee length white leggings.  
"I absolutely adore it, Maddie."  
"I go by Maddison now." The girl corrected sternly. "It is significantly more sophisticated."  
"Okay." Lexi suppressed a laugh. "Why don't you guys go say hi to your mom and dad?"  
The girls ran into the kitchen.  
Next was a boy of about 12. His black hair was neatly trimmed and slicked back and he wore black thick rimmed eyeglasses. He was wearing a white polo and purple skinny jeans with checkered suspenders.  
"Hey Cameron!" Lexi said giving him a hug.  
"Hey Lexi!" Cameron hugging her back with over the top enthusiasm.  
Lexi pulled away from him and asked "Did you get a haircut?"  
"Yes! So glad you noticed!" Cameron said touching his hair. "How does it look? I cut it myself."  
"Awesome!" Lexi said.  
Cameron moved on and walked flamboyantly into the kitchen.  
Lexi shouted for joy when the next person walked in "Aaaaavaaaaa!"  
"LEXIIIII!" A freakishly tall redhead shouted as she bounced through the door. "I am so stoked to see you!"  
"I can not believe you just used the word stoked!" Lexi said as she hugged her best friend.  
"It may be a vintage term but i plan to bring in back." Ava beamed, flipping her short red hair. She was wearing a pink tank top underneath a cropped jacket with black dress pants.  
"I love your bangs..." Lexi stopped as Ava's older brother Marvin filled the doorway.  
He was a model in the making. At about 6 feet he had a picture perfect body and short dark brown hair. His tan was flawless and natural. He wore a collared dress shirt that despite being slightly loose still highlighted his muscles.  
"Hi Lexi." He smiled.  
"Hey Marvin." Lexi squeaked.  
Ava looked at her for a second and then made a grossed out face. "Uhm. I guess I'll go see if I can help with dinner." She walked away.  
The two smiled awkwardly at each other. "So," Lexi began. But before she could finish, Luke walked by with Caleb tagging along behind him.  
"Hey Marvin!" Luke said, trying to make his voice sound lower. "Caleb and I are gonna go play this new game I got. It is basically Modern Warfare 3 but it has way better graphics and like 30 new classes."

"Cool." Marvin said casually. "Want to come Lex?"

"Yeah, sure I'll be down in a minute." Lexi replied shakily. The boys went downstairs and she went into the kitchen where the rest of the gang were talking and catching up.

When she entered the room, Maddie and Chloe ran up to her jumping up and down. "We were wondering if you could possibly show us where you keep your dress ups." Maddie said assertively.

"Of course I can Maddie." Lexi said and she started to walk out of the room followed by the girls.

"It's Madison!" Maddie insisted.\

"YAY DRESSUPS!" Chloe cried.

"Ava! Come with!" Lexi shouted.

"Fine." Ava said reluctantly. And she followed.

"And Melanie!" Cameron asked politely. "Is there any possibility that I could help you with dinner?"

"Of course you can." Melanie smiled lovingly. "Come in the kitchen. I'm making a salmon dish."

"How tasteful!" Cameron beams. "I truly idolize your cooking skills!"

"Here take the gouda!" Marshall added.

"Dad. Really?" Cameron made a face. "Gouda? It is so 20 years ago. Nobody eats gouda anymore!"

"Just take it." Marshal demanded.

Cameron shrugged and took the plate, following Melanie into the kitchen.

Marshal laughed and shook his head. "He is quite the character."

"They all are." Ted said. "Wow guys. 6 kids."

Lily and Marshall nodded and smiled at each other. "And the Romance is still there!" Lily added adoringly. She and Marshal shared a quick kiss.

There was a knock on the door. "That must be Barney and Robin!" Ted said excitedly. The three of them began walking to the door together. "Thank god they don't have any kids. It is hard enough to fit 14 people in our dining room. I don't think we could scrounge another seat if we needed too."

"I am so excited to see them." Lily said, "I mean what with their last minute second honey moon it has been almost half a year! I mean I missed Robins birthday for crying out loud"

Ted opened the door to find Barney and Robin smiling back at them. But instead of an over sized bottle of scotch, Barney was holding a little Asian girl with a missing arm.

"Hey guys!" Barney and Robin said together.

Ted, Lily and Marshal said nothing. Their mouths hung open.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Barney said excitedly "This is Mia."

Still, there was no response.

Robin looked equally enthusiastic if not more. "She is our foster child!"

"Your what?" Ted gasped

"Teddy, ted, ted." Barney began "I know that you're old and you're losing your hearing so I will say it again! This is-"

"He heard you." Marshal cut him off "He was just surprised."

"Oh." Barney smiled. "Well Mia. This is Ted, Marshal, and Lily. They are my best friends. And you know Robin. She is my wife and your other foster parent."

Mia raised her arm and waved but didn't say anything.

"She doesn't talk. She never has apparently" Robin whispered. "But she understands everything."

Nobody said anything.


	2. Chapter 2

Nobody said anything.  
"Melanie!" Robin shouted "Come here we have a surprise!"  
Melanie came in wiping her hands on a towel. She stopped dead in her tracks. Her mouth fell open for less than a second, but she quickly closed it and smiled "Who is this?"  
"Who's this?"  
"This is Mia." Robin said.  
"Oh." Melanie's face was dazed with surprise. "That's nice."  
"Melanie!" Cameron came in too. He was wearing an apron and also wiping his hands with a towel. "I need your opinion on some- oo! Who is this little angel?"  
"Hi Cameron." Robin said. "This is Barney and my foster daughter Mia."  
"Mia!" Cameron made his voice like 3 octaves higher if that was possible and began talking to Mia in a baby voice "How are you? You are beautiful. I love that top on you! How old are you?"  
Mia held up four tiny fingers.  
"FOUR!" Cameron was slightly over excited, as usual. "Well, you're practically a young lady! And you can already count. That's WONDERFUL."  
Mia laughed.  
"Hey Cameron." Barney began "Do you think that you could take Mia around to meet all the other kids?"  
"Oh my god!" Cameron beamed "Really? Are you sure? Because I would love to!"  
Both Barney and Robin nodded. Barney set Mia down and Cameron took her hand.  
"Let's go downstairs Mia. I think they might be playing dress up down there."  
The two of the walked slowly off down the basement stairs.  
Once they were gone the six adults just stared at each other.  
"All right." Melanie initiated "Let's go into the family room and sit on the couch. I think we have some talking to do."  
Once they were all seated around the coffee table in the family room, everyone sort of just sat there. They were short one seat so Robin and Barney shared a chair. Everyone sort of just stared at them until finally Robin spoke up.  
"What?"  
Ted was the first one to respond. "You have a daughter?"  
"Foster daughter." Barney corrected "And you are one to talk. You have two kids."  
"Yeah but," Ted thought for a minute "How did this happen?"  
"Well," Robin glanced at Barney "We were in China on our second honeymoon-"So that's why I couldn't call you." Lily interrupted "You know I tried to call you a ton of... you know like once."  
"Anyway," Barney said.  
"We were in Beijing." Robin continued "And this little girl came up to us and held up her little bowl for money or whatever."  
"And, I'll finish," Barney said quickly "We didn't have any money so we thought we would just pick her up and take her!"  
The other four gasped.  
Ted looked furious "YOU KIDNAPPED A CHILD?"  
Barney and Robin looked at each other and then burst out laughing.  
"Of course not Ted! We aren't that spontaneous." Robin said between laughs. "We had been planning to adopt a kid from the Middle East for a while. When we finally got approved to actually adopt we went over to China."  
"But when we got there we sort of had cold feet." Barney added "We were like 'how are we supposed to be parents'. So the woman was like, 'you could always do fostering'. And we were like 'sure, if we like it we will adopt Mia'." There was a long pause. "The end."  
Then everyone started talking at the same time.  
Ted was shouting "What the hell were you guys thinking? You can't be parents!" and spewing out reasons why.  
Lily was frantically saying "Parenting is really hard. What makes you think you're cut out for this?" and listing the hardships of parenting.  
Marshal was very tongue tied and was saying a series of words that didn't exist "Ohmyfulf! Biddlyfink! Shoedilbop! Babdeerook!" and other words that he thought were reasons this whole thing was a bad idea.  
"You know what I am going to go check on the Salmon." Melanie said. She stood up and walked into the kitchen.  
"You are too old to have a kid!" Ted said.  
"We are not." Barney defended "We are younger at heart then you will ever be! And Robin still looks like she's in her 30's."  
"Thanks baby." Robin said. "You are definitely going get some tonight."  
"See that is just it." Ted continued "You guys are both too immature and too old to have kids." Ted vented on. "I mean come on, when Mia graduates Barney will be in his 60's."  
"So?" Barney and Robin asked together.  
Ted looked flustered. He turned to Marshal and Lily "Help me out here guys. You would have another kid at this time in your life, would you?"  
Lily and Marshal didn't say anything. There was some nervous laughter as they looked at each other.  
Ted shook his head. "No."  
"Surprise?" Lily asked.  
Downstairs things seemed to be going better than upstairs. Mia was playing silently with Cameron, Chloe and Madison, who were of course very chatty. They were putting on some sort of a play. Cameron was dressing his sisters and new companion up and directing them on where to stand and what to say. Every once in a while he would step in as the male lead and begin reciting lines from various plays.  
The boys were playing a video game of the violent sort. Caleb was dominating and Marvin and Luke were both trying very hard not to curse every time they died. Every once in a while Luke would pick up his I phone and start texting.  
In the corner Lexi and Ava were sitting in bean bag chairs with a giant touch screen computer. They were doing a series of activities, from face book stalking all of Ava's various crushes to scrounging google for college info. Finally the computer screen went black.  
"Damn it," Lexi whispered "It is out of battery. This thing only has enough battery power to last like 3 days. I really want to upgrade to the one that lasts a week."  
"Yeah." Ava sighed. Then she lowered her voice and said "Should we crash the boys video game session?"  
Lexi nodded. Then both of them walked over to the couch and plopped down in between the boys.  
"My turn." Lexi said.  
"No." said Luke matter of factly.  
"Come on Luke." Marvin said. "Lex, you can use my controller.  
Lexi smiled shyly. Her voice cracked as she responded "Thanks."  
Marvin handed her his controller.  
"Luke un pause it!" Caleb said irritably.  
Luke pressed a button.  
"What do I do?" Lexi yelped.  
"Here." Marvin put his hand over top of hers and helped her to maneuver the controller. "Do you understand now?"  
Lexi muttered something and nodded.  
Luke paused the game and started texting someone.  
"Jeeze Luke stop texting your girlfriend." Marvin mocked.  
Luke made a face "You stop texting your girlfriend."  
"That was the worst comeback ever man. I don't even have a girl friend." Marvin stuck his tongue out.  
Luke stuck his tongue out back.  
"Unpause it!" Caleb yelled.  
They started playing again.  
"Hey guys." It was Cameron. "Can you turn that down? We are trying to tell the story of a princess and the sounds of dying soldiers are not helping to set the mood."  
"Guys!" A voice came from upstairs. "Dinnners ready."  
"Yay!" Caleb shouted. He dropped his controler and rocketed up the stairs. Everyone else followed, leaving Lexi and Marvin to clean up.  
"You don't have to stay and clean up if you don't want to Marvin." Lexi said as she picked up the three controllers and put them in a basket next to the tv.  
"It's my pleasure." Marvin paused as he put away some sparkly pink article of clothing to smile charmingly back at her.  
"Okay then." Lexi's voice shook. "So, are you excited for college?"  
"I am but i am also nervous." Marvin said "It's just so unfamilliar."  
"Yeah..." Lexi smiled sympathetically, attempting to compose herself. "Being so far away from your family can be hard."  
"And my friends, and my house and everything." Marvin seemed uncharacteristically vulnerable He sat on the couch. Lexi walked over and sat next to him. He buried his hands in his hands. "It's okay. You're going to make new friends and you will be able to college home eventually too." Lexi put her hand on his shoulder. Seconds later she realized that it was there and quickly removed it.  
"I guess." Marvin mumbled. "What about you? I can never remember what grade you are in."  
"I am going to be a senior."  
"Really, but you are 2 years younger than me."  
"Late birthday."  
"Oh." They sat there for a few seconds. Marvin looked around the room and said "Well, the room looks clean to me. Upstairs?"  
"Sure." Lexi stood up and followed him up the stairs.  
The adults were seated around one table and the kids around another. Marvin pulled a chair out at the kids table next to Ava and gestured for Lexi to sit there.  
Meanwhile, the adults were eating in silence.  
Ted, who was sitting at the head of the table, looked to his left and saw Barney and Robin, looked to his right and saw Marshall and Lily then looked across the table at his wife. He had this expression on his face that Melaney recognized. He was about to blow. He opened his mouth but before he could say anything...  
"Ted can i talk to you in the kitchen for a second?" Melaney asked. But it wasn't really a question. It was a demand.  
"Yeah sure." Ted stood up and followed her out of the dining room. "Mel, sweety this isn't the kitchen."  
"I know, i realized after i said it that the kitchen is in plain view and earshot from the dining room." Melaney shrugged.  
"Okay," Ted shook his head and laughed. "Well, why did you pull me over here?"  
"Because you were about to yell at your friends."  
Ted looked the floor "Was i really that obvious?"  
"Yeah. I could tell by the way you scrunched up your face that you were trying to come up with something to say." Melaney chuckled. "I love you, but discretion is not your strength."  
Ted laughed a little, shaking his head. He took her hand in his, intertwining their fingers. He lightly kissed her forehead. His voice softened "And why, may i ask, did you need to stop me from the rest of the group?"  
"Because, I didn't want you to say anything that you would regret?" And when Ted looked confused she added "I didn't want you to say anything stupid or hurt anyones feelings."  
"But Melaney," Ted whined "Barney and Robin aren't ready to be parents. And Lily and Marshall already have 6 kids. Plus, we are all too old to have kids."  
"Ted what i told you that we were gonna have another baby."  
Teds expression completely changed. "Oh my god this is so exciting!" He grabbed her and spun her around in his arms. "I love you. This is amazing! We have to go tell everyone!"  
"Ted. I'm not pregnant." Mel said quickly.  
Ted's face fell. "Then why did you tell me you were?"  
"Because i wanted you to feel for a second what it would be like to be on the other side of this equation." She explained "I'm sorry... i didn't know you would be so enthusiastic."  
"It's fine." Ted thought for a minute "Okay, so maybe, just maybe, if i was in there position, i would want them to be happy for me."  
Melaney nodded.  
"Sorry about that spastic reaction." Ted sighs. "It was weird."  
"Do you think you're ready to go back in there?" Melaney asked, her eyebrows raised.  
Ted nodded and walked into the dining room. "Sorry about the inconvenience. We were just discussing..." He blanked  
But Melaney, quick on her feet finished his sentence "what wine to get. I'm going to get the bottle."  
She went into the kitchen, leaving Ted alone with his friends. He smiled and sat down.  
"So as i was saying before." Lily continued "We can lend you anything that you need to get through the toddler years." She glanced adoringly at Marshall and squeezed his hand "The first kid can be the most difficult."  
Robin opened her mouth but before she could say anything,  
"What the hell were you guys thinking?!"  
It was Ted.


End file.
